The federal government offers various funding through bureaus and agencies to support manufacturers, including notices of funding opportunities (NOFOs), grants, loans, and tax credits.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Advanced Manufacturing
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration funds research and development to support regulatory science and innovation under the FDA Broad Agency Announcement (BAA). Advanced manufacturing opportunities may be submitted under research area I: Modernize development and evaluation of FDA-regulated products.
Department of Agriculture
Business & Industry Loan Guarantees
Business & Industry Loan Guarantees offer loan guarantees to lenders for their loans to rural businesses.
USDA Rural Development Business Programs
Business Programs provide financial backing and technical assistance to stimulate business creation and growth. The programs work through partnerships with public and private community-based organizations and financial institutions to provide financial assistance, business development, and technical assistance to rural businesses. These programs help to provide capital, equipment, space, job training, and entrepreneurial skills that can help start and/or grow a business. Business Programs also support the creation and preservation of quality jobs in rural areas.
Department of Commerce
Economic Development Administration
Assistance to Coal Communities (ACC)
Congress designates a portion of EDA’s annual Economic Adjustment Assistance (PDF) funding to support communities and regions that have been negatively impacted by changes in the coal economy. “Coal economy” is a term that reflects the complete supply chain of coal-reliant industries.
Build to Scale (B2S)
The Build to Scale (B2S) program supports organizations that strengthen entrepreneurial ecosystems to support entrepreneurs as they build and scale technology-driven businesses—and the employees in the new, good jobs they create—to make and deliver new technology products and services. B2S grants fund programs that support innovators, entrepreneurs, and startups transforming ideas into the critical, emerging technologies of the future.
Department of Education
Discretionary Grants, Student Loans or Grants, and Formula Grants
The Department of Education has funds available to help state education agencies, local education agencies, and other education stakeholders to support state and local efforts to improve student achievement, educational equity, and access to educational opportunities for all students.
Department of Energy
Industrial Training and Assessment Centers Implementation Grant
Small to medium-sized manufacturers that receive a qualified energy assessment can apply for grants of up to $300,000 anytime throughout the year; applications will be reviewed quarterly.
Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO)
The U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office supports funding opportunities across its research areas. Following an open, competitive solicitation process, these funding opportunities encourage collaborative partnerships among industry, universities, national laboratories, federal, state, and local governments, non-government agencies, and advocacy groups.
Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) Loan Program
The Loan Programs Office provides loans to support the manufacture of eligible vehicles and qualifying components under the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program, authorized by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.
Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO)
The Advanced Materials & Manufacturing Technologies Office provides cost-shared funding to pursue innovative technology R&D across the manufacturing sector. Funding is awarded through an open, competitive process. Project selections are merit-based and emphasize potential energy, environmental, and economic benefits.
Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office (IEDO)
The Industrial Efficiency & Decarbonization Office provides cost-shared funding to pursue innovative technology research and development (R&D) across the manufacturing sector. Funding is awarded through an open, competitive process. Project selections are merit-based and emphasize potential energy, environmental, and economic benefits.
Bioenergy Technologies Office
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) develops industrially relevant, transformative, and revolutionary bioenergy technologies to enable sustainable, domestically produced biofuels, bioproducts, and biopower that can improve our energy security, reliability, and resilience while creating economic opportunities across the country. BETO selects research and development projects through open and competitive procurements called funding opportunity announcements and encourages collaborative partnerships among industry, universities, national laboratories, federal, state, and local governments, and non-government agencies.
Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy (EERE)
The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) invests in research and development to lower the cost of clean energy technologies, protect the private sector from financial risk, and ensure an equitable transition to a decarbonized economy. Funding is awarded through an open, competitive process hosted primarily on the EERE Funding Opportunity eXCHANGE.
Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains (MESC)
Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains (MESC) plays a critical and unique role in catalyzing investments in America’s energy future to support the re-shoring, skilling, and scaling of U.S. manufacturing across energy supply chains. MESC addresses critical vulnerabilities in U.S. energy supply chains, serves as the frontline of clean energy deployment, and accelerates America’s transition to a resilient, equitable energy future through direct investments in manufacturing capacity and workforce development. MESC also develops and provides the energy supply chain focused analytical tools needed to inform programs and investments across the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. government, and the private sector by identifying gaps, vulnerabilities, and other needs across U.S. clean energy supply chains.
Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy
Wind Energy Technologies Office (WETO)
The Wind Energy Technologies Office (WETO) focuses on technological development to improve the reliability and affordability of wind energy and addressing barriers to wind energy deployment. WETO funds research and development activities through competitive solicitations.
Vehicle Technologies Office
The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy supports high impact projects that can significantly and swiftly advance market acceptance of next generation energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies. New funding opportunities are announced regularly.
Department of Health and Human Services
National Institutes of Health
Manufacturing and Biomanufacturing Tools
This program supports the development and demonstration of broadly applicable manufacturing and biomanufacturing tools to enable the translation of new paradigms of human health.
Department of Transportation
DOT Navigator
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Navigator is a new resource to help communities understand the best ways to apply for grants, and to plan for and deliver transformative infrastructure projects and services. The DOT Discretionary Grants Dashboard helps communities identify discretionary grant opportunities that can aid in meeting their transportation infrastructure needs.
Environmental Protection Agency
Diesel Emissions Reduction Act (DERA) Funding
The Diesel Emissions Reduction Act Program funds grants and rebates that protect human health and improve air quality by reducing harmful emissions from diesel engines.
Export-Import Bank of the United States
Export-Import Bank (EXIM)
The Export-Import (EXIM) Bank is the official export credit agency of the United States. Its mission is to support American job creation, prosperity, and security through exporting. We accomplish this by unlocking financing solutions for U.S. companies competing around the globe. We help level the playing field and fill gaps in private-sector financing. When private sector lenders are unable or unwilling to provide financing, EXIM fills in the gap for American businesses by equipping them with the financing tools necessary to compete for global sales. In doing so, the agency levels the playing field for U.S. goods and services going up against foreign competition in overseas markets, so that American companies can create more good-paying American jobs.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Advanced Manufacturing
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration funds research and development to support regulatory science and innovation under the FDA Broad Agency Announcement (BAA). Advanced manufacturing opportunities may be submitted under research area I: Modernize development and evaluation of FDA-regulated products.
National Science Foundation
Advanced Manufacturing Seed Fund
NSF helps startups navigate the earliest stages of technology translation, investing roughly $200 million annually in approximately 400 startups. Each startup can receive up to $2 million to support translational research and development. From advanced manufacturing to artificial intelligence to biological technologies to environmental technologies, we fund nearly all areas of technology.
Advanced Technological Education (ATE)
With a focus on two-year Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs), the Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program supports the education of technicians for the high-technology fields that drive our nation's economy. The ATE program involves partnerships between academic institutions (grades 7-12, IHEs), industry, and economic development agencies to promote improvement in the education of science and engineering technicians. It is strongly recommended that projects be faculty-led and required that courses and programs are credit-bearing, although materials developed may also be used for incumbent worker education.
Engineering Design and Systems Engineering (EDSE)
The Engineering Design and Systems Engineering program supports fundamental research that advances design science and/or systems science through the creation of new knowledge about the design of engineered artifacts.
Operations Engineering Program
The Operations Engineering program supports fundamental research on advanced analytical methods for improving operations in complex decision-driven environments.
Future Manufacturing
The goal of Future Manufacturing is to support fundamental research, education, and training of a future workforce to overcome scientific, technological, educational, economic, and social barriers to catalyze new manufacturing capabilities that do not exist today. Future Manufacturing seeks inventive approaches to invigorate the manufacturing ecosystem and seed nascent future industries that can only be imagined today.
Small Business Administration
America's Seed Fund
Federal innovation, scientific achievement, and diverse entrepreneurship through small business innovation and research. Through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs, America’s Seed Fund awards non-dilutive funding to develop your technology and chart a path toward commercialization. The federal government invests in your solution and gives you the freedom to run your business according to your vision.
7(a) Loan Program
The 7(a) loan program is the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA's) primary business loan program for providing financial assistance to small businesses. The 7(a) Loan Program, SBA’s primary business loan program, provides loan guaranties to lenders that allow them to provide financial help for small businesses with special requirements.
504 Loan Program
The 504 loan program provides long-term, fixed rate financing for major fixed assets that promote business growth and job creation. 504 loans are available through Certified Development Companies (CDCs), the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA's) community-based nonprofit partners who promote economic development within their communities. CDCs are certified and regulated by SBA. The maximum loan amount for a 504 loan is $5.5 million.
Microloans Program
The microloan program provides loans up to $50,000 to help small businesses and certain not-for-profit childcare centers start up and expand. The average microloan is about $13,000. SBA provides funds to specially designated intermediary lenders, nonprofit community-based organizations with experience in lending, management, and technical assistance. These intermediaries administer the Microloan program for eligible borrowers.
Lender Match
Get matched to potential lenders funding with competitive rates and fees. You can answer a few questions about your business in as little as five minutes, access a curated list of lenders who express interest in your loan, compare rates, terms, and fees, and submit loan applications and paperwork.
COVID-19 Relief Options
Get information on loan payments, program data and archived content for SBA’s COVID-era relief programs.
Investment Capital
Find an investor for your business from among more than 300 Small Business Investment Companies licensed by the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Disaster Assistance Loans
Explore the U.S. Small Business Administration's low-interest disaster loans to help businesses and homeowners recover from declared disasters.
Surety bonds
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) guarantees bid, performance, and payment surety bonds issued by certain surety companies.
Grants
Find out about the U.S. Small Business Administration’s limited small business grants for scientific research, community promotion of entrepreneurship, and exporting.